History - Historia - Geschichte
The He-111 got an unenviable reputation as a 'weapon of mass destruction' circa 1937, resulting from its use in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. It really was a pretty awesome weapon during its day. No other production bomber could match it. Its major downfall was its lack of range, as the Luftwaffe really did not build any truly strategic bombers during the war; all were merely used as extensions of ground forces.
The He-111B was the first of the series to be put into production. What made the aircraft a success was its Daimler Benz DB 600 engines. Prior to the development of this engine, the Germans had no really good liquid cooled engines, relying on engines of that type from other countries when a lot of power was required. Not good for propaganda, you know.
The preproduction He-111B-0 aircraft were reaching test units at Rechlin in late 1936, with the first production He-111B-1 planes reaching KG 154 (later KG 27) just a few months later. Really a remarkably short period of time for such a new aircraft. Anxious to test their new bomber, two staffeln of 111B-1 bombers were sent to Spain in February 1937. These 20 aircraft joined KG.88 and were used in action for the first time on March 9 of that year. Others were supplied to Spanish Nationalist forces.
The next subvariant, the He-111B-2 began rolling off the production lines in May of that year. The major difference being in the engines used, the B-2 having more powerful DB.600s. Overheating was a problem with the B-2 so additional radiators were attached under the leading edges of the wings. Such was the pace of development that the He-111B was quickly supplanted by more capable variants and relegated to training and transport duties.
The Kit - La maqueta - Das Modell
This is the first Roden kit I have ever seen. Frankly, I am both impressed and cautious. There are lots of parts and individually they are well detailed with engraved panel lines that seem to be so necessary to today's model. On the other hand, several of the parts have quite a bit of flash on them and the larger bits have some imperfections and sink marks. This is particularly evident on the fuselage sides. This is due to the thick detail parts on the inside of the fuselage. Where you have thick plastic, you will probably have sink marks.
The clear bits are nicely detailed and a bit thick. Attachment points are all on the see-through bits and will need to be polished prior to use. In addition to some sink marks, there are a number of ejector pin marks on the inside of the fuselage and a few other places. These will be difficult to remove without damaging the detail work around them. Speaking of detail work, for a 1/72 kit, the molded in detail on the interior is quite good. In fact, there is a lot of detail on the interior. The bomb racks themselves are a major subassembly and fill much of the interior. Too bad that we can't see much of it as there are no bombs for this variant, nor are the bomb doors able to be positioned open unless you do some surgery.
The exhaust on this kit is made up of 12 separate exhaust pipes for each engine. Definitely not a job for the shaky! However, there is hope. There are some extra exhaust of the collector variety that are on the sprues, but marked as not to be used. Thanks to the reference, I have a photo of a B model using these exhausts which you can see below. You may wish to note that this is one of the planes on the decal sheet. However, this one has black codes vice the white ones on the sheet. You will also notice that it looks as if there has been some repainting done of the codes. Since Green's book is pretty old and his information could be in error, it is up to the modeler to decide if this easy way out should be used. This aircraft also has a dustbin type of lower 'turret'. The instructions only show how to build the kit with it in the down position.
While we are on the subject of instructions, the ones in the kit are quite good. They tell you all the colors needed as well as what mods are for what version. There are a total of 31 construction steps. I told you this was a detailed kit. Paints are all referenced to Humbrol colors. Decal options are for three aircraft. Two Condor Legion B-1s in overall light grey with white wing tips. One has a nice, large comet on the forward fuselage. The third is a B-2 in the four color splinter scheme with large civil markings and a red band on the tail. The swastika is a two part affair. The decals themselves are quite matte and look very similar to Propagteam, though the amount of clear carrier is greater. How they will work I do not know. Perhaps someone who has built a Roden/Toko kit can tell us. Overall, it looks like a good kit. It will probably be quite fiddly and have the usual fit problems, but nothing that an experienced modeler shouldn't be able to overcome. Because of all the parts, I would not recommend this to the beginner, but only those with some experience in complicated kits.
REFERENCES |
Bombers and Reconnaissance Aircraft, Vol 9, by William Green, 1967, Doubleday
Review kit courtesy of me and my wallet!
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